Well, the season is over. The season started, and then games were played, and now there are no more games to play in the season, so it is concluded. And it seems like after all the tumult of our last offseason, we finish the season with no more confidence or consistency than when we started. And that’s interesting due to the seemingly “acceptable” season that most pundits will say that we had. I’ll try to break it down a bit for myself, so I can try to close this chapter and come back next season with a bit of understanding.
Results
Weekly Summary:
- West Ham. W. 0-2
- Brighton. L. 0-3
- Spurs: D. 1-1
- Burnley. W. 3-1
- Man Utd. L. 1-4
- Wolves. D. 1-1
- Everton. W. 2-1
- Southapton. L. 2-0
- Chelsea. L. 2-0
- Crystal Palace. W. 0-2
- West Brom. W. 2-1
- Leeds. L. 5-2
- Fulham. D. 1-1
- Man City. L. 2-0
- Liverpool. D. 0-0
- Leicester. L. 1-2
- Sheffield. L. 1-0
- Arsenal. L. 3-0
- Aston Villa. L. 2-0
- Leeds. L. 1-2
- Everton. W. 0-2
- Crystal Palace. L. 1-2
- Southampton. W. 3-2
- Chelsea. L. 2-0
- Man United. L. 3-1
- Wolves. D. 1-1
- West Brom. D. 0-0
- Aston Villa. D 1-1
- Brighton. L 3-0
- Spurs. D 2-2
- Burnley. W 1-2
- West Ham. W 3-2
- Liverpool. D 1-1
- Arsenal. L 0-2
- Leicester. W 2-4
- Man City. L 3-4
- Sheffield. W 1-0
- Fulham. W 0-2
So let’s break this down a bit differently, looking at how we fared against the table, in the final order.
Man City: 0 pts
Man United: 0 pts
Liverpool: 2 pts
Chelsea: 0 pts
Leicester: 3 pts
West Ham: 6 pts
Tottenham: 2 pts
Arsenal: 0 pts
Leeds: 0 pts
Everton: 6 pts
Aston Villa: 1 pt
—–NUFC—–
Wolves: 2 pts
Crystal Palace: 3 pts
Southampton: 3 pts
Brighton: 0 pts
Burnley: 6 pts
Fulham: 4 pts
West Brom: 4 pts
Sheffield: 3 pts
So from that analysis, it seems like we basically did what we were supposed to do and collected points from the teams below us. There seem to be two noticeable outliers from this trend: 6 points from 6th place West Ham, and 0 points from the mighty 16th place Brighton. We also took 6 points from Everton, but it seems like we do that every year, so it’s really no big deal. To all the Everton supporters out there, I just want you to know that it gets better. It really does. You just have to keep believing.
But hang on a second, let’s go back to the first one. If you look at the chronological list of results, let’s start to look for some patterns:
Chapter 1: A Decent Start
West Ham. W. 0-2
Brighton. L. 0-3
Spurs: D. 1-1
Burnley. W. 3-1
Man Utd. L. 1-4
Wolves. D. 1-1
Everton. W. 2-1
Southapton. L. 2-0
Chelsea. L. 2-0
Crystal Palace. W. 0-2
West Brom. W. 2-1
After 11 weeks, Newcastle had amassed 17 points.
Chapter 2: A Sad Christmas
Leeds. L. 5-2
Fulham. D. 1-1
Man City. L. 2-0
Liverpool. D. 0-0
Leicester. L. 1-2
Sheffield. L. 1-0
Arsenal. L. 3-0
Aston Villa. L. 2-0
Leeds. L. 1-2
Between Wednesday, December 16th and Tuesday, January 26th Newcastle played 9 games. They won zero of these games, and drew two. Out of a potential 27 points, they gained 2. That’s 7% of the points that they could have gained. Seven percent. Interestingly enough, this bad stretch began and ended with matches against Leeds.
Chapter 3: Death by a Thousand Draws
Everton. W. 0-2
Crystal Palace. L. 1-2
Southampton. W. 3-2
Chelsea. L. 2-0
Man United. L. 3-1
Wolves. D. 1-1
West Brom. D. 0-0
Aston Villa. D 1-1
Brighton. L 3-0
Matchweeks 21 through 29 showed a return to normalcy for Newcastle, earning 9 points out of a possible 27. A match against Everton is always a good way to knock a team out of the doldrums, and that’s just what happened. Unfortunately, easy wins against Everton and Southampton were the exception rather than the rule, and a run of injuries, terrible form, and even worse attitude culminated in a horrific loss away to Brighton. After a few draws which should have been wins, we thought Brighton could knock us loose again – but it only made things worse. The fans turned on Bruce for his absolute lack of tactics and effort, and we thought all was lost. But then, our players started to get healthy again.
Chapter 4: A Positive Conclusion
Spurs. D 2-2
Burnley. W 1-2
West Ham. W 3-2
Liverpool. D 1-1
Arsenal. L 0-2
Leicester. W 2-4
Man City. L 3-4
Sheffield. W 1-0
Fulham. W 0-2
The Spurs match, on April 4th, saw the return of our talisman, Alan St. Maximin. He only played for a few minutes, but it was the start of something. The next week. Callum Wilson came back for Burnley, and while he didn’t score until Week 35 (2 goals), he completely changed the shape of the team, and we looked like the team who was competing at the start of the season again. After a very long and depressing mid-season stretch, we had a few games at the end which saved us and kept us up. Now, the problem is, those same games also gave the uninterested pundits ammunition to protect Steve Bruce.
My favorite infographic is from Transfermarkt.us, which shows a week by week graph of the team’s position and their opponent:
From this snapshot, you can see that our season started okay, ended okay, and was rubbish in the middle. Thankfully, and weirdly, we were actually never in the relegation zone throughout the entire season. Now compare that to the previous two seasons:
It felt like a very different season this time around, and you can see why. Early hope, a long winter of despair, and a hopeful conclusion, sneaking out by the skin of our teeth.
Managers
A couple phrases on Steve Bruce. I know, nobody wants to read ANOTHER bitchy article about how Steve Bruce is the dumbest manager in the league, but I can’t write a summary of the season without it. As I’ve said before, I like Brucey. I want to eat bacon with him. But as a manager, he’s hit his ceiling. I do believe he’s an excellent man manager, able to pull players together and believe in one another. Newcastle have a good record of scoring late to steal a draw or a win, and Bruce is the one who can take credit for this, so I want to give him credit for it. However, there are different levels of manager. There are good Championship managers, who can turn boys into men, by getting them focused on games, and playing as a unit. Then, there are average Premier League managers, who can do this, AND develop them from average football players to good football players. Then, there are above average managers, who can do all of this AND scout young talent, to build a team from a global set of prospects. Then, there are excellent Premier League managers, who can do all of this AND deal with the ego of the most elite players in the world and get them to buy into a clearly defined and dynamic system which that individual manager wants to play. (And then, there’s Pep Guardiola – he’s just different.) But I would say that Brucey is solidly in the “Good Championship Manager” level – and no more than that. AND THAT’S FINE! I could never do that! But, there are plenty of people out there in the “Above Average Premier League Manager” level, who are available, who are worthy of the Newcastle United job.
While Bruce gets the credit for keeping the boys playing hard until the last minute, and earning points by doing so, he also MUST get the criticism for 1) not understanding where to play his players, 2) not knowing how to modify the team when certain players are unavailable through injury, 3) not knowing how to modify the strategy during the course of a match, 4) not knowing who or when to substitute to give his team advantage during the course of a match, and 5) not knowing how to work the media and fanbase to his advantage. We, admittedly, had a really hard go of it with COVID and injuries, and that’s hard on every manager – and although nobody wants to admit it, it’s a VERY good excuse for a poor season. But ALL managers and clubs go through it – the good ones deal with it well and the bad ones go on 11-match winless streaks.
It also must be said that when Graeme Jones came in, after he had a bit of time to make an impact, an impact was most certainly made. 19 goals were scored in 20 games before Graeme Jones arrived, which is 0.95 goals per game – with a relatively full, injury-free squad. Then, in the 18 games after his arrival, Newcastle scored a whopping 27 goals. That’s 1.5 goals per game – not setting the world ablaze, by any means, but certainly respectable.
Players
This year was a pretty standard year as far as players go, with a few highlights, and lowlights. But every year is different, and every player is important. I’ll go through a shortlist below.
Goalkeepers: NUFC have always been blessed with a good Goalkeeping squad, and this year was no different. When you have a manager who just LOVES for other teams to attack us, you need good keepers.
Dubravka: He started the year on the injured list, but when he came back was excellent, as always. 7/10
Darlow: Given a huge opportunity at the beginning of this season, he took it with flying colors. He’s not naturally as good of a keeper as Dubravka, but the kid is better than half of the keepers in the league, so good on him. 8/10
Defense: Our defense had a pretty torrid year, giving up the second most shots in the league. Brucey made it hard for them, but in many respects, they didn’t step up to the plate when needed. I don’t really feel like highlighting any specific player here – the unit as a whole didn’t play as strongly as in previous years. There were some injury problems which didn’t allow them to play together enough to become a strong unit, possibly, but whatever excuse you give, the outcome just wasn’t good enough. 5/10
Midfield: There are highs and lows here. I believe midfield is where teams win or lose, and it’s clear why we didn’t win enough this season.
Highs: Isaac Hayden, Ryan Frasier, Joe Willock, Allan St. Maximin. Willock set the team on fire after he came on loan from Arsenal, tying Shearer’s record for 7 consecutive matches with a goal. He was a much needed boost at the end of the season. Hayden is just a consistent, hard-working soldier, and always puts in a great performance. St. Maximin will NOT be back next year, as he is far too good for our team. His creativity, pace, and utter boldness set him apart from all other players on our team, and most in the league. He’s so fun to watch, I’ve loved every minute of it, and I’ll be sad to see him go. Frasier barely makes it onto the “high” list, as he can be frustrating sometimes, but he gave his all prior to his injury, and was positive in most of our wins. 7/10
Lows: Jonjo Shelvey, Sean Longstaff, Jeff Hendrick. Jonjo can have some WONDERFUL moments, but all in all, he’s lazy, slow, and a liability. He never gets back enough, and when he finally does, you’ll often see him foul a player in poor spots. Longstaff is the sideways pass KING, never providing anything than a warm body. And Hendrick, my goodness, what a waste. There are far too many midfielders at Newcastle who think that maintaining possession with sideways passes is enough to keep a spot. Hopefully the likes of St. Maximin and Willock have opened their eyes a bit this season. 4/10
Almiron: Didn’t get on either list this season, because he’s just too inconsistent. I love the player, his smile, his workrate, and all. But he MUST learn how to provide a positive contribution at the end of his possessions. There are far too many times he makes a good run and it just ends with a poor touch and a turnover. 6/10
Strikers:
All in all, I was pretty happy with the strikers this season – they didn’t get enough opportunities due to the manager’s style of play and the poor service by the midfielders, but there were some improvements from previous seasons.
Joelinton: As much as I love to criticize him, Joe made some solid improvements this year. He’s clearly a winger, and not a lone #9 striker. This was highlighted by his positive contributions when playing alongside Callum Wilson and Allan St. Maximin. He’s big enough and fast enough to pull defenders away, but doesn’t have the skill to do it himself. But he’s getting smarter at playing with this team, and after all the stick he’s gotten, you never see him complaining to the club or fans, and I like that about him. He puts his head down and works. Now if he could just run a bit faster during the match and stay on his damn feet when he gets the ball in the box, he could be a football player. 7/10
Callum Wilson: Probably our player of the season, alongside Joe Willock. Wilson is exactly what we missed last year – a quick, intelligent front man who can create a goal from very little, and gives us just a shred of hope of scoring when we have gone 80 minutes without anything. We must keep him and give him the #9 shirt next year, and try to build our next 5 years around him. The problem is – who is going to help him out?
8/10
Summary
This was not a good season. The pundits will give everyone too much credit for a 12th place finish, and say that that’s what every Newcastle supporter should hope for. None of these pundits watch the matches. I listen to Shearer, and he calls out the club when they put together a terrible, lackluster performance, and there were FAR too many of those this season. We have a good base that we could build from, but the problem is that Mike Ashley won’t invest in the team. He’s biding his time until the takeover will or won’t happen, and my guess is that it won’t. So next season we’ll be bad again, and again, and again. And that’s what this club feels like – purgatory. We’ve got the potential to be a phenomenal, fun club – but something is always holding us back, whether its our owner who won’t invest, manager who won’t try to go for the win against the worst club in the league, or this damn takeover that continues to drag on and on. It’s purgatory for a fan, and purgatory for these players, and the smart ones, like ASM, want out. And that’s the worst feeling of all as a fan – when you love a player so much that you actually WANT him to leave your club, to reach his full potential. I know that pretty soon things will improve, but right now, it’s depressing and boring to watch this club limp along season after season. Of course I’ll always be with them no matter how bad it gets, but lets just hope it doesn’t get too much worse. Honestly, how can it?
Howay the Lads. Or, as Willock likes to say, Come on you Maggies!
The Newcastle Review 